1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to the selecting and the reselecting of a resource for peer discovery in peer-to-peer networks.
2. Background
In an ad hoc peer-to-peer wireless network such as FlashLinQ, peers or nodes need to discover each other's presence. Peer discovery is accomplished by each peer transmitting a peer discovery signal on a resource. A peer's presence is detected by other peers by listening for the peer's peer discovery signal. The resource used for peer discovery is typically a time frequency block. The resources are typically orthogonal, which allow receiving peers to distinguish one from another.
In an ad hoc peer-to-peer network there may be no centralized authority to assign the peer discovery resources to peers or having a centralized authority assigning the peer discovery resources may not be desirable. As such, a peer must select the peer discovery resource on which it transmits. Once a peer selects a resource on which to transmit its peer discovery signal, the peer may later reselect the resource on which to transmit its peer discovery signal based on whether other peers are using its resource. The selection and reselection of a peer discovery resource can lead to instabilities in the network, as multiple peers may select or reselect to the same resource at the same time and therefore cause additional peer discovery resource reselections. As such, there is a need for a method and apparatus for selecting and reselecting a resource for peer discovery that results in greater stability in a peer-to-peer network.